Hayman's Gin: A Family Legacy Blending Tradition and Innovation in London

The Enduring Appeal of Gin

• 👑 Gin has been the national drink of the U.K. for over three centuries, with its popularity experiencing a significant surge worldwide in the last 15 years, partly due to the craft cocktail movement.
• 🎯 Hayman's Gin, established in 1863, stands as the oldest family-owned distillery in London, dedicated to preserving tradition while embracing innovation.

A Guided Gin Tasting Experience

• 👃 Tasting spirits requires a different approach than wine due to higher alcohol content (ABV), with techniques like the 'drive by' to acclimate the nose.
• 🌟 The tasting featured three distinct gins: Old Tom, characterized by citrus and piny notes with a rounded mouthfeel; London Dry, a softer and more rounded style; and Sloe Gin, an English liqueur infused with blackthorn fruit, offering a sweet and dangerous profile when mixed with London Dry.

The Hayman's Family Legacy

• 📜 The distillery's lineage traces back to founder James Burrow in 1863. His great-grandson, Christopher, a pharmacist by training, returned from America to purchase a small drinks company, laying the foundation for Hayman's Gin.
• 💡 Christopher Haymon is recognized as an innovator, being the first London distiller to incorporate citrus into gin, a practice now common, and he maintained the original gin recipes.

Preserving Tradition in Distillation

• ⚙️ The distilling process remains a two-day affair, starting with English wheat spirit steeped with botanicals to extract flavor and oils, ensuring balance and depth.
• 💖 The three copper stills are named after three generations of Haymon women—Miranda, mom Karen, and Marjorie—honoring the family's matriarchal history.
• 👧 Siblings Miranda and James Haymon, fifth-generation distillers, share childhood memories of working in the distillery, from bottling lines to tasting rooms, highlighting the immersive family environment.

Innovation Rooted in Heritage

• 🌿 Hayman's uses 10 classic botanicals, including juniper and cassia bark, in their family recipes.
• 🎶 New offerings, such as lower-alcohol batches and vibrant citrus-infused gins, stay true to the core taste of Hayman's, likened to an orchestra where individual parts harmonize into a single piece of music.
• 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Christopher, Miranda, and James are custodians of this legacy, viewing the family business as more than a job—it's a lifestyle that fosters a strong sense of community and pride.